Modern organizations, particularly technology driven organizations, have a constant need to innovate. Unfortunately, innovation is often hindered by an existing lack of technology to properly explore new technologies. In a sense, future technologies are “stacked” upon previous technologies. That is, without a proper technological foundation, there is no support for technological innovation. It is difficult to skip generations of technology.
One technology often needed to support innovation is data processing power. Modern organizations require processing power for many different purposes. Technology companies, for instance, rely on processing power for research and development (“R&D”) efforts. Pharmaceutical research companies spend large sums of money on the latest data processing equipment to discover and test new drug compounds. Financial institutions need processing power for stock trend modeling and other computation-intensive activities. Defense contractors need processing power to test new missile designs. While these various organizations operate in different industries, each would benefit by owning or having access to computer systems that offer more data processing power.
At any given time, there are millions of unused data processing devices throughout the world. Workstations, personal computers, laptop computers, personal digital assistants (“PDAs”) are often not in use. Many computers sit in a room overnight, during meals, and sometimes throughout the workday. Further, even when people are using these data processing devices, the devices rarely operate at full capacity. The processors in these data processing devices are often available to provide data processing for others.
Data processing devices are possessed by various entities including corporations, academic institutions, and private individuals. These entities, however, are generally only concerned with solving their particular problems. The entities described above have no incentive to share the processing power of their respective devices with others. Thus, most never consider the greater need for data processing power.